Simple Overview

This web site is designed for two users, 1st is the “Lister” who is listing or advertising something for sale or auction and 2nd is the “Public Viewer” who is looking for something to buy or for an auction in their local area or outside of it. We have a fantastic Search Capability! I’ll explain that later.

All these categories can be used to list your sale in. As of right now all categories are free to list in except for the Storage Unit Auction category, which is a monthly subscription fee.

Search Functionality:

The Search function is awesome! You can decide what category you want to search in or all categories at once. For example, if you were looking for “tools” within 50 miles of your zip code at a storage unit auction you would enter “tools as the Keyword and pick “Defaulted Units” as the category and then put in your zip code and within 50 miles and then if there are any storage unit auctions that have tools in them they would all show up within your search radius. You could have also picked “all” categories and then decide if you want to go to an auction or a yard sale, estate sale or such.

You can also do Regional Searches within the USA. Lower down on the main web page is a way to “drill down” from the United States to>>>>Any State>>>>Any City>>>>>etc.

Listing a Sale or Auction Overview:

When you list something for sale or auction you would start by picking the large left hand upper button that says “Advertise Your Sale Here” or the “Advertise” button at the top of the web page. You will be asked to fill in some User Information with a new name and password. Then you will be asked to fill in your Location of your sale. Then your listing can include pictures and a description of the contents for sale. You can even link your company’s web page to your listing. You need to remember your user name and password for future editing or changes. Your in control, it’s quite easy!

Storage Unit Listing – Step by Step

Note: If you want a detailed explanation, please see the “Storage Listing - Detailed Explanation” in the “How It Works” section at the top of the web page.

Pick “Storage Client Registration” at the top of the home page.

Now you are on the “Create Account” page. You will first create an account for your subscription service. Click Submit…

Now you are on the “Location” page. This info will appear on your facility page where the public viewer will find your auctions or facility. This is the 1st half of your listing process. Click Submit…

Now you will be asked to Pay For Your Subscription. Follow the prompts and once you complete your payment you will come back to the web page to complete your listing.

Now click the red arrow to Complete your Listing. You will now be finishing the 2nd half of your listing. The first half was Location, now your going to actually “Add the Defaulted Unit”.

Now you can see your Subscription Order (account) has been created. You are now prompted to pick the little square “Manage” symbol that the red arrow is pointing to.
This will open up the 1st part of your Location Listing to allow you to add your 2nd half, which is the actual “defaulted unit (s)”.

Now on this step your prompted to pick the red “Add Defaulted Storage Unit” text. This is correct but before you do, take note of some of the options on the page:

Now you’re on the “Add Default Storage Unit” page. This is the 2nd half of your “Listing” which once filled out will complete your cycle. You can add up to 100 defaulted units if you wish, we doubt you will need that many but you could. You could add just one unit and log out and later log back in and add 3 more units. Or you could stop and log out here and not add any units until your ready. You still would have an account with a user name and password and a Location listing with no Defaulted Units yet. However, most will continue on this page to add a defaulted unit.

Now pick “Submit” and you are finished. You can now go to the home page and view your completed listing. Or pick “view public listing”. Don’t forget you’re still logged in. You can log out if you’re not adding more units. If you want to add more units just pick the “Add Defaulted Storage units” again and fill out another one and submit. You can do this over and over again as long as you are still logged in.

Listing Storage Units – 1st time

Tip: Keep this window available (minimized) or Print this out to use when listing. You may not need it, but if you get hung up on a certain step you can always refer to it.

Hint: If you’re in a hurry the BOLD CAPTIONS are essentially the sequence of steps or picks to complete your process.

Pick “Storage Client Registration” at the top of the home page

Now you are on the “Create Account” page. You will first create an account for your subscription service. This account will later allow you to login and add up to 100 Defaulted Units to it! Once you understand how to use this as a collection tool it will make more sense why you might need to list 20 or more units (for more info see the collection tool video). Fill in the information. Here are some helpful hints:

Write down your User name & Password for future use

Don’t forget to check the “I Accept” box below the Terms and Conditions

Type in the “security code” letters at the bottom of the page. If you want a different or easier to read code just click on the little circular arrows next to the box and you get a new one.

Click “Submit” at the bottom of the page. If there is an error, look at the top of the page for an explanation in red, then correct and put in a new security code again and submit again.

Now you are on the “Location” page. This info will appear on your facility page where the public viewer will find your auctions or facility. This is the 1st half of your listing process. You’re giving them your important information so fill it in accurately. You can always go back and “Edit your Listing”, so if your in a hurry that’s ok. The Location you are creating is based upon the location of your facility. One account per location is allowed. So if you have 10 facilities each location will have it’s own account and login. Helpful Hints:

As noted, this info will be viewed by the public so fill in as much as you can to promote your facility. This is essentially your stores mini web page.

When filling out the link to your actual web page don’t forget to add the http://www. in front of your web address.

When filling out the description box add a lot of bells and whistles about your facility. The public viewer may be using the “Search Facilities” to find storage.

When adding a Picture of your logo or facility make sure it’s smaller than 2mb. You can even add more pictures later by editing listing and picking “add images”.

Now you will be asked to Pay For Your Subscription. Follow the prompts and once you complete your payment you will come back to the web page to complete your listing.

Now click the red arrow to Complete your Listing. You will now be finishing the 2nd half of your listing. The first half was Location now your going to actually “Add Defaulted Unit”.

Now you can see your Subscription Order (account) has been created. You are now prompted to pick the little square “Manage” symbol that the red arrow is pointing to.
This will open up the 1st part of your Location Listing to allow you to add your 2nd half, which is the actual “defaulted unit (s)”.

Now on this step your prompted to pick the red “Add Defaulted Storage Unit” text.
This is correct but before you do, take note of some of the options on the page:

Upon future editing (not now) you may come across this page again to add “Images” to your Location Page. Or you could open up your Location Page by picking “Edit Listing” to change something. Even the “Add / Edit defaulted units” can be used later to do such. But first you need to add a defaulted unit before you can edit it.

Now you’re on the “Add Default Storage Unit” page. This is the 2nd half of your “Listing” which once filled out will complete your cycle. You can add up to 100 defaulted units if you wish, we doubt you will need that many but you could. You could add just one unit and log out and later log back in and add 3 more units. Or you could stop and log out here and not add any units until your ready. You still would have an account with a user name and password and a Location listing with no Defaulted Units yet. However, most will continue on this page to add a defaulted unit. Here are some helpful tips on this page:

Please note that the laws vary from state to state. It is your responsibility to know when and how you can exercise your Lien Rights against the defaulted tenant. We only offer suggestions that may or may not apply to your laws or specific collection strategies. Consult your attorney as we have. We know that when a customer is so far past due they could go straight to the auction process. We also know that Storage operators do not want to sell the tenants goods if at all possible to prevent it. The “Status” options offer a way to escalate the pressure for collecting your money and late fees possibly without having to sell the tenants goods (see below for an explanation). And we know that in reality many facility managers want to work with the tenant in a fair and assertive way to resolve the delinquent unit. So even though you have the legal rights to go straight to auction, you also have some good collection tools to avoid it and possibly collect more money than you would have by auctioning the unit. Obviously in many cases when it becomes necessary you will list the “Unit for Auction” and follow through with the actual auction.

After you put in your “Lien Unit #” the next step will ask you what is the “Status” of the unit. Your 3 choices are: 1) “Unit in Default”2) “Pending Payoff” 3) “Unit for Auction”. It’s up to your management discretion what “Status” you put here. Whatever strategy you choose, please be aware that the “Status” will show up on your publicly viewed listing. We have done this so the public can distinguish between a unit that is under “Pending Payoff” and a “Unit for Auction”. We have also made the “Tenant Name” and “Date of Auction” fields un-editable (cant type into the fields) until the status of the unit is changed to “Unit for Auction”. We did this because the last thing we wanted was for a bunch of people to show up for an auction that really wasn’t an auction, it was “Pending Payoff” or “Unit in Default”. And in some states it may not be legal to use the tenants name until the unit is going for auction. Please see below for further thoughts and explanations of the Status levels:

“Unit in Default” = We use this status when a customer has exceeded past due or late on his payments and is now over 30 days late. If you haven’t cut his / her lock at this point you may just take a picture of their door closed with the unit # on it to show that they are close to being on the auction block. Even though you may not have committed them to auction you can email them this page to put them under pressure to pay or you will cut their lock and inventory their stuff and put their ‘opened door‘ unit picture out for the public to see what is going for auction and when.

“Pending Pay Off” = We use this when we agree to pause (not Stop) the auction process. If they agree to come in and pay something on their unit, and give us a plan to pay it off and then sign the attachment page (see below to understand why this signing is so important at this point), we will change the status to “Pending Payoff”. At this time it’s your choice whether to cut the lock and open the unit and take a picture to upload on the listing. You may tell the customer that if they don’t honor their payment arrangements you will cut the lock and take a picture of the contents for the web site listing or you may choose to show the open door content picture now and tell them that if they keep their agreement you will change the picture to a closed door or no picture whatsoever. Every tenant is different in regards to their circumstances and intent to pay or follow through.

Important note at this point: Please be aware that for Michigan customers and other States that this may apply. You can use this web site in addition to your newspaper add and use this site as an additional collection tool, auction turn-out, advertising etc. but when you want to only use this web siteexclusively as your sole means of notification of intent to auction the tenants unit(s) and not use the local newspaper of general circulation you must consider the following points:

More than likely your contract that the defaulted tenant signed some time ago did not list this web site as the only means of advertising incase their unit were to be auctioned due to non-payment.

The new potential tenants that may start renting now need an addendum (supplement page) to your current contract stating that if they were to stop paying and you had to auction their unit they would be listed on this web site only and not the local newspaper.

What do you do now?

We have included Printable Pdf attachment pages from our Attorneys in the “How it works” drop down menu at the top of the home web page that address these 2 issues. We recommend that you review these with your own Attorney before using them. For issues (a) and (b) above see resolution (a) and (b) below:

One supplement page stating that for some consideration (ie; 2 more days to pay more money toward the unit, or $25 off the bill, whatever you agree on), that you and the tenant agree to this stated consideration and that from this point forward you (your storage facility) will be using this web site exclusively for all auction notification listings and not the local news paper.

A contract attachment page for new renters that states that your facility will be using this web site as a means of notification of intent to auction their unit if they stop paying. Of course on the attachment page itself the Lawyers will say that same thing in a language that we cant even understand! Just half joking!

“Unit for Auction” = This is obviously used when there is no other good option except for the actual auction sale of the tenants unit. For example; They (the tenant) never came in to pay the additional money as they said they would etc. etc. Note that now the “Tenants Name” and “Auction Date” fields are able to accept text or the date. Remember, this was by design per the reasons stated above. Also there may be times when you feel that starting out with this status level and an open door content picture and inventory list is more effective with some customers than others. Then move them into Pending Payoff and have them sign the attachment page per above (in red italics). We find that as long as you keep good notes in your management software that shows a pattern of attempts to work with them within the law that if they try and sue later your covered pretty good. Our managers log every call, visit, and letter and save back up copies of any agreement signed. It’s a good business practice in a lawsuit driven world.

When you fill in the “Inventory Sale Items” be aware that this is directly coordinated with the “key word” search on the main page. So be as general or as specific as you think it would take for some one to find it in a key word search. For example; if you had a “Snap-on upper chest” which is a tool box, you might want to call it a “Tool Box” then you could add “Snap-On model 720” etc. after that. The main point is to keep it simple first. Washer, dryer, motorcycle, tools, furniture, mower, air compressor, ladder, plumbing tools, bedroom set, antiques, again keep it simple then add more of a description after the simple term if necessary.

To add Images (pictures), you will need to pick the “browse” button then look on your local computer drive, probably the “My Pictures” folder or wherever you kept the pictures that you want to add. When adding pictures make sure they are not over 2mb each or it will not accept your listing picture(s). To check this you can sometimes just scroll over the pic before you add it and it will tell you the size, or your can change your settings on your computer screen from “thumb nails” to “list” and look at the info supplied. If you try and add a Large pic (over 2mb) the screen may even hang up when you pick “submit” and seem like it never took your listing after you submitted it. It usually will tell you after some length of time that your picture is to large but by then you may have given up and thought it never created your listing. It did but it was taking to long because the picture was too big.

Now pick “Submit” and you are finished. You can now go to the home page and view your completed listing. Or pick “view public listing”. Don’t forget you’re still logged in. You can log out if you’re not adding more units. If you want to add more units just pick the “Add Defaulted Storage units” again and fill out another one and submit. You can do this over and over again as long as you are still logged in.